St. Andrew's rivalry tops schedule for districts

Pine Crest and St. Andrew's will renew their rivalry this week as the district swimming and diving championships get under way.

Nine district meets in Broward and Palm Beach begin today.

District is the first qualifier for the Nov. 1-3 state meet in Orlando.

One of the fastest meets is expected to be the District 10-1A meet at St. Andrew's Duff Tyler Aquatic Complex in Boca Raton on Thursday. The meet features St. Andrew's and Pine Crest.

St. Andrew's (9-1) is coming off one of its program's biggest boys wins over Pine Crest in last week's dual meet. Pine Crest coach Jay Fitzgerald called it "a wake-up call" for his team.

The District 11-1A meet Friday at Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex is also expected to be competitive. The Cardinal Gibbons boys' and girls' teams finished their regular season 13-0 while Chiefs coach Duffy Dillon hit the 200-win mark last week. He is 203-54-1 over 10 seasons.

"We are very happy with the way the team has come together this year," Dillon said. "We're racing better and better every week across the board from the most experienced to the least experienced kids.

"Our leaders are really stepping up," Dillon said. "We expect to have a tough battle with American Heritage this week and then a really competitive region and state with our most qualifiers in history. We are looking for top 5 in both girls and boys at state."